Title: Girls Bravo Collection
Alternative Title: GIRLSブラボー
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia), Funimation (US)
Based on: Girls Bravo manga series by Mario Kaneda
Audio: English and Japanese dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Full Frame Original Ratio
Runtime: 600 minutes over four DVD’s
Cost: $AUD 69.95 from Madman Online Store
Trailer: Click Here
Classification: This title is rated MA15+ and is not recommended for those under the age of 15. Sale may be restricted to people under this age.
Copyright Information: ©KANEDA MARIO ● KADOKAWA SHOTEN PUBLISHING Co., Ltd. / “GIRLS BRAVO” Production Committee
Special Thanks: A review copy of this DVD was kindly provided by Madman Entertainment.
I had no intention of reviewing this for a few days, however as plans got shifted forward a little bit, I was able to finish watching all the episodes of this series and able to write this review tonight. This anime got my attention, not for the actual harem content but the fact that the description on the back of the box uses the word gynophobia. Gynophobia is the phobia of women, and therefore I thought it might break the normal trend for harem animes to just be perverse attempts at fanservice. However, as is evident by the MA15+ rating on the front of the box, it just turns out to be another fanservice driven series, however considering that this was originally released in Japan during 2004 – 2005, there must be something special about the series right? Well, read on to find out there is… in my review of Girls Bravo Collection.
A high school boy, Yukinari has been bullied and abused by girls all his life and has developed gynophobia — a fear of women. In fact, just being around them makes im break out in hives! One day, he is transferred to a world that only females inhabit. There he meets a beautiful and mysterious girl named Miharu who inexplicably doesn’t affect him. He somehow manages to return to his own world, accompanied by Miharu, but shortly after, other girls follow them to his world and his life turns into a big mess!
The series true nature, if it isnt evident already is revealed in the opening seconds of the series. It starts with a scene with Miharu, fully naked in a bath leaning over facing the viewer and asking for their name and their favorite food. It is revealed that he is talking to an image of Yukinari that is reflected in the water. Of course, we all know what is to happen next. A further 10 minutes in and Yukinari has fallen through a portal in his bathtub and arrived on an alternate planet named Saren, which has a population of almost entirely women (They claim there is a 90% Female population on the planet, but there are no males during the entire time on Saren, somehow I think they have all been devourered, killed off or currently engaging in infinate sexual relations, but I will let that slide for now. Miharu and Yukinari escape the ensuring chase scene with the population of Saren and end up back on Earth, where she must now adapt.
Yukinari on a good day…. a simple rash~
This is all well and good, except the teeny little fact that Yukinari is afraid of women, and is constantly beaten up by girls for accidental perverse acts which make the treatment of Prinnies look good (Disgaea reference). This is also another plot device how every female besides Miharu will violently attack him without hesitation. None the less, this ensures that every episode contains hot springs, boobage, skimpy clothing or another similar concept that is sure to lead to stripping. Whilst I am sure this is appropriate for a harem anime, after the first few episodes, the attempts they used were very rarely unique… I am pretty sure that very few people have ever started stripping off in the middle of class, and multiple times is almost unheard of…. there are supernatural elements to take into account, but then there is this series just pushing the boundaries a bit. Just don’t get me started on the whole “banana” element of the series….
The main cast of Girls Bravo
Besides these two characters, there are a number of other support characters that have varying roles of importance in the series. The other main female character is called Kirie, who is first described as “A girl with breasts the size of pork buns”……. not the most appropriate introduction but she does play a primary role in both being a friend and neighbour to Yukinari, and in return he is her punching bag. In terms of fan service, besides her being well endowed, she is also “catnip for lesbians” and she is usually the one forced to undertake the attempted yuri scenes in the series. The other girls include Koyomi, a girl who is shy and has a fear of men, Tomoka, the loli of the series who has a superiority complex and Lisa, an insane girl who possesses the ability of black magic and treats Yukinari as her soul mate.
The anti-Yukinari
To contrast the female characters, there is also one further male character who is considered the anti-Yukinari as despite him getting much worse beatings from those of the female gender, Kazuharu is more then pleased to creatively grope and sexually harrass the characters. Whilst he is the character who seems the most forced, he is usually the one with the random or witty lines that successfully made me laugh.
So many questions need to be asked here I think….. such as…. why an octopus?
However, most of the plots are drab and boring, and often use a few too many unexplainable plot twists to get the story across, where a properly thought out episode would not need to use them. For example, in the obligatory “School Swimming” lesson, Kazuharu reveals that he bought out the school pool and held up the teacher and mechanically transforms the school pool into a resort. Okay, you would think… that is fine how it is…. but then Lisa was found to have set up black magic poles which cause the characters to switch bodies. Once again, over doing it a bit but you can work with it…. but is it fanservice enough? Nope, then a gigantic octopus, for no reason at all comes out of the pool and proceeds to tentacle rape Kirie, who just so happens to be Kazuharu. I can appreciate a plot twist, but this series dangerously overused them. Oh, and those who hate filler episodes beware, with the exception of two small episode sets, every episode is unique and does not follow on from the previous one.
The set contains post seasons and the first season seemingly had no specific end to it, and would have been left unresolved. The second season however, being the final one had some sort of ending too it, however it felt rushed, used a new character that was not seen at all in the series prior as the antagonist and gave the “Good End” to the series where the harem continues to expand.
Come on… I am sure every one of you wants an elevator like this….
In terms of design, you have got to take into account that the series was originally released in 2004, thus why the aspect ratio was 4:3 instead of widescreen 16:9. However, he backgrounds, whilst not terrible appear bland and have very little character in them and are generally just there to provide a backdrop. The character designs are what I would expect from the time period that this anime was released, and are what I would consider average. At least the clothing designs of the characters change often to show some sort of different feature of the character or at least show that the designer was actually doing more then just the basics. The animation is also average, however some of the lighter segments of the anime benefit from this, and actually manage to get you to laugh, or at least think the situation is more interesting through it.
Opening Themes: Going My Way (Season One) and Ever After (Season 2) by Yozuca
Both of the opening themes use rather slow paced music that was overall average, however was not anything special and were skipped over after one watch. The animation used it in uses no in-anime footage and shows off all characters whilst not showing off much of the fan service in the series.
Ending Themes: Koko ni Irukara.. (Season One) and …and then (Season 2) by Miyuki Hashimoto
Songs were slower paced then the opening themes, and to be honest, I didn’t watch either of them the full way through. The animation for both are different, however both consist of Miharu either in the bath (First Season) or walking (Second Season).
and I~ will always loooove yo…. et cetera, et cetera.
The music in this series is what you would expect from a Harem anime.. nothing too complex, nor anything that will take away from the overall “fanservice” experience of the episode. Considering the settings of the episodes, some of the music was rather enjoyable however for the most part, it is just there to complement the mood. However, in Episode 4, there is a rather unique parody version of the second “I Will Always Love You” that was originally sung by Whitney Houston. Sadly this song only lasts for a short period of time, it was something that really added to the Yuri scene before the viewer and made it all the more funnier.
Voice acting was a mixed bag of good talent and average voice work. Michelle Ruff, well known for her work as Etna in the Disgaea series voices Miharu in this series and being used to her voice as Etna really made her sound weird for the first few episodes with me wondering how the series would have gone if Etna was that loopy. However, her voice work was pretty good. Liam O’brien as Kazuharu was also a good choice, and he really got the insane perverted tone worked out quite well. That being said, the actual voice of Yukinari didn’t really suit his appearance, and made him sound too normal and bland. Sadly, my least favorite voice was for Tomoka, as whilst her voice was bearable in the first few episodes she was in, by the end it felt like she was constantly screaming to try to get the tone of voice suitable for the character, which just irritated my ears.
There are a few basic extras on the fourth and final disk, these are:
- Clean Openings and Endings
- Original Openings and Endings – Essentially the opening or ending sequence with the original Japanese credits on it. Don’t see much benefit to this….
- Art Galleries
- Trailers for new series (Out of all the DVD’s Madman sent me, this disk had the most recent animes in their trailer selection.)
- The original Geneon English trailer. Less guilty sounding then the one Madman has up.
Essentially, the extras are nothing special, however the art galleries are always good to scroll through. There was an issue with at least the disk I had however, the second Clean Opening was accidently placed in the second slot of the Clean Endings section with the second ending being under a third ending heading. Only a small error however.
Remember, good boys and girls don’t watch series like these until they are 15.
Personally, I would be lying if I didn’t say I enjoyed the series, since at times a number, it was actually a real hoot seeing how far they would try and push the harem genre, however at best, I would personally consider it an average anime since whilst it does do some stuff right, it does a lot of stuff wrong as well. If you are a fan of over the top fanservice then I can say there may be something in this series you will enjoy, but if you are into the more complex animes, then it would be wiser if you tried another of the many anime series on offer (Such as Spice and Wolf). Either way, at the start I intended on dropping the series at the end of the first disk and concluding my review, but I was able to get through all four disks and 600 minutes of content on it… that must count for something eh?
Final Score
Storyline: D+ (3)
Characters: D (3)
Design: D (2)
Opening and Ending Themes: D (2)
Music: D (3)
Voice Acting: C (4)
Extras: C+ (5)
Personal Opinion: D+ (3)
Overall Score: D+
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